December 31, 2014 03:30 PM UTC

How Lamborn Beats The High Cost of Living

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• by: Colorado Pols

The Colorado Springs Independent reports, it would appear that Rep. Doug Lamborn of Colorado Springs has made campaigning for office in his ultra-safe Republican district a family business:

Now that Doug Lamborn is ensconced in the U.S. House of Representatives for another two years, we learn the Republican from Colorado Springs has used his campaign war chest to reimburse himself and his wife for thousands of dollars in expenses and consulting work.

The payments range from mileage to campaign services to interest on a loan that Lamborn originally told regulators was interest-free, a violation of campaign finance regulations…

Other payments from Lamborn's campaign account include $3,545 for mileage reimbursement, which translates to nearly 6,330 miles using the federal reimbursement rate of 56 cents per mile. Most of that expense, $2,698, was claimed during 2014. That equates to about 4,817 miles, which would be the equivalent of about 51 trips from Colorado Springs to Buena Vista — roughly the east-to-west span of the Fifth Congressional District.

…Another $13,946 went to Lamborn's wife, Jean Lamborn, for accounting services, bookkeeping, administrative consulting and campaign management. (His campaign paid her $33,297 in the 2012 campaign cycle for "salary" and administrative accounting, plus expenses.)

Serious question: do the Lamborns have a joint bank account?

Back in 2009, former Rep. Scott McInnis was criticized for paying his wife thousands of dollars for work allegedly done on his re-election campaign. The practice isn't unheard of, of course, but McInnis even paid his wife from campaign funds after he announced he wasn't running again. With Lamborn, it's a little different, but still pretty dubious. Lamborn had an active campaign, but in a district considered a virtual lock for any Republican candidate. Lamborn has never had to run a truly tough campaign, only primary challenges provoked by Lamborn's lack of effectiveness in Congress and general bumbling ineptitude. For whatever reason, CD-5's Republican-dominated electorate keeps returning him to Congress over vastly more qualified Republican and Democratic opponents–allowing Lamborn to run basically pro forma re-election campaigns.

Which also help balance the Lamborn family budget! If Lamborn's next primary (or general election) challenger doesn't give this a full airing in 2016, they'll be missing a golden opportunity.